Gameweek Rutgers: The More You Know

Mascot: Well it appears that their actual mascot has no official name. But being that Rutgers is the state university of New Jersey, insert your own stale Jersey Shore joke here.

Coach:Greg Schiano, who is entering his 10th season as Rutgers head coach. In 2006, his Scarlet Knights earned their first ever Top 10 ranking, for which he received many Coach of the Year awards. One Top 10 ranking for the university that claims to be the birthplace of college football and has been playing it for 141 years…we guess that’s good.

Conference: Yet another BIG EAST foe. Rutgers joined the BIG EAST in football in 1991 and all other sports in 1995. Will 2011 be the year they join the Big Ten so New Yorkers everywhere can enjoy the Big Ten Network?! Stay tuned…

Series: 20-7-0. However, 4 of those 7 losses have come in the Wannstache era. In fact, Dave Wannstedt is 1-4 vs. Rutgers with the one win coming last season in Piscataway, NJ.

TV/Radio: BIG EAST Game of the Week! That’s right folks, for the second week in a row, your Pitt Panthers have been relegated to a set of regional television channels throughout the country known as the BIG EAST Network. Please do not mistake this with an actual TV network like the Big Ten network that has actual content, the BIG EAST simply rebrands ESPN+. Check your local listings or the affiliate list on the506.com. Otherwise, you can always tune into ESPN3.com if your internet service provider paid a lot of money to ESPN for the rights to use the service so you can watch the game. In the Pittsburgh area, you can also listen the Billy Hillgrove and Bill Fralic on 93.7 The Fan.

Bloggers: There doesn’t appear to be a lot going on in the blogosphere related to Rutgers sports. The only one we came across was On The Banks. This week, they have a Q&A with Pitt blogger Cardiac Hill, plus the latest on injured Rutgers player Eric LeGrand.

Eric LeGrand: Last week against Army, junior defensive tackle Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed. Rutgers has established the Eric LeGrand Believe Fund to support Eric and his family. You can also send Eric a get well message.

Fun Facts: As mentioned earlier, Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate football game back in 1869, in which Rutgers won 6-4. One week later they played a second game, this time with Princeton winning 8-0. No further games were played that season, leaving both teams with a 1-1 record and sharing the national championship. Seriously, 1-1 and a national championship…still seems like a more fair way of selecting a national champion than by using polls created by computers, 80+ year old senile coaches, and sports writers…but what do we know.